Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Seasonal Recipe of the Week
Everyone should have at least one great cheesecake recipe in their repertoire. This is my new fave! I love the crust made from lady fingers (instead of the uninspired graham cracker crust) with the inclusion of espresso powder and chocolate chips. I love the addition of mascarpone instead of just cream cheese. And I love the chocolate chips in the cake which give your mouth something to do. Cheesecake is easy to prepare, but make sure you really whip the cream cheese because lumps are unacceptable! Making sure the ingredients are at room temperature helps them blend together more easily.



Ingredients
1 7-ounce packages crisp, Italian-style ladyfingers
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 1/2 lbs cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
boiling water

Procedure
Position a rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Wrap the outside of a 9-inch springform pan with foil and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Using a food processor, grind ladyfingers into fine crumbs. Add melted butter, espresso powder, and 1/4 cup chocolate chips then pulse until incorporated. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and press to form a crust halfway up the sides. Bake until set, 8 to 10 minutes, let cool. Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

While the crust cools, beat the cream cheese using an electric mixer on high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the sugar at high speed until smooth. Beat in the mascarpone, vanilla and salt. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips.

Set the springform pan in a roasting pan. Pour the mascarpone-chocolate chip mixture into the baked crust, then place the roasting pan in the oven. Pour enough boiling water into the roasting pan to reach halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake until the top is golden and the center is set but still jiggly, about 1 hour.

Let cool in the water bath for 15 minutes, then transfer the springform pan to a rack to cool completely. Refrigerate the cheesecake (still in the pan) for 6 hours or up to 2 days. Remove cheesecake from the springform pan and put on flat platter. You can decorate with some whipped cream with a little coffee liquor in it. Or melt some chocolate and do a little Jackson Pollock drizzle thingy.

The Classics We Enjoyed this Holiday Season

Seasonal Recipes of the Week
Yes, I still hate Christmas, Chanukah, New Year's Eve (because everyone always fails at having fun), and even Kwanzaa. What can I say? I'm an equal-opportunity Grinch. I hate the stressful over-shopping, the insanity in parking lots, the parents lamenting about their materialistic kids (“I learned it by watching you, Dad!”), and the required overindulgences. BUT! I do love the getting together with friends and sharing a meal or a cocktail. So here are three recipes I made this year to share with neighbors and friends. They are all classics and can be served anytime. So sit back, watch the yule log burn on TV, and relax. Don't worry, it's almost over.

Crème Brûlée

Ingredients
1 extra-large egg
4 extra-large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for each serving
3 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

Procedure
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. In a bowl, mix the egg, egg yolks, and 1/2 cup of the sugar together until just combined. Meanwhile, scald the cream in a small saucepan until it's very hot to the touch, but not boiled. Now slowly add the cream to the eggs. Add the vanilla and orange liqueur, mix to combine, then pour into 6 to 8-ounce ramekins until almost full.

Place the ramekins in a baking pan and carefully pour boiling water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the custards are set when gently shaken. Remove the custards from the water bath, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until firm.

To serve, spread 1 tablespoon of sugar evenly on the top of each ramekin and heat with a kitchen blowtorch (or under the broiler — watch it!) until the sugar caramelizes evenly. Allow to sit at room temperature for a minute until the caramelized sugar hardens.

Tiramisù

Ingredients
2 cups hot water
3 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
3 tablespoons rum
4 large egg yolks
1/3 cup dry Madeira
1 pound mascarpone (2 1/2 cups)
1 cup chilled heavy cream
36 crisp Italian ladyfingers
Unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting

Procedure
Stir together water, espresso powder, 1 tablespoon sugar, and rum in a shallow bowl until sugar has dissolved, then set aside to cool. Beat egg yolks, Madeira, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, using a whisk or handheld electric mixer until tripled in volume, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. Beat in mascarpone until just combined. Beat cream in a large bowl until it holds stiff peaks. Fold mascarpone mixture into whipped cream gently but thoroughly.

Dipping both sides of each ladyfinger into coffee mixture, line bottom of a 13 × 9 × 3-inch baking pan with 18 ladyfingers in 3 rows, trimming edges to fit as necessary. Spread half of mascarpone filling on top. Dip remaining 18 ladyfingers in coffee and arrange over filling in pan. Spread remaining mascarpone filling on top and dust with cocoa. Chill, covered, at least 6 hours. Let tiramisu stand at room temperature 30 minutes before serving, then dust with more cocoa.

Hazelnut Linzer Tart cookies

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, plus more for decorating
3 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
3 large egg yolks
1 1/4 cups hazelnuts, finely ground in processor (about 1 1/2 cups ground)
jam filing of your choice (I like to mix raspberry and apricot)

Procedure
In a medium bowl, whisk dry ingredients together. In a large bowl, beat butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, and citrus zest until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks. Beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions, then beat in nuts. Gather dough into ball, then flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out half of dough on lightly floured surface to a 1/8-inch thickness. Using 2-inch round cutter, cut out rounds. Using 3/4-inch round cutter (or a shape that's about the same size, like I did), cut out the centers of half of the rounds to make rings. Transfer rounds and rings to prepared sheets. Gather dough scraps, chill, and re-roll to make more cookies. Repeat until all dough is used.

Bake cookies until golden, reversing sheets after 10 minutes, about 22 minutes total. Cool completely on sheets.

Arrange cookie rings on work surface. Sift powdered sugar over. Spread 1 teaspoon jam on each cookie round. Press rings onto jam on rounds. Can be assembled 1 day ahead. Store between sheets of waxed paper in airtight container at room temperature.

Do ahead: Before filling, you can store baked cookies airtight at room temperature up to 2 days, or freeze up to 2 weeks.

Mascarpone

Excellent Ingredient of the Week
This week the excellent ingredient of the week is mascarpone, a soft, white, fresh, vegetarian, cream cheese from the Lombardy region of southern Italy. Mascarpone is used in famous Italian desserts, like Tiramisu, and in the preparation of certain dishes and sauces. In fact, it is not cheese at all, but rather the result of a culture being added to the cream skimmed off the milk, used in the production of Parmesan. It is, however, described as a curd cheese, although it is made in much the same way as yogurt.

To make mascarpone cheese, tartaric acid (a natural vegetable acid derived from the seed of the tamarind tree) is needed. After the culture has been added, the cream is gently heated, then allowed to mature and thicken. This whitish- to straw-yellow, creamy, mild fresh cheese is compact, and spreadable. It takes only a few days to ripen and has a fat content of 75 per cent. I found a recipe on Food52 to make it at home! it's similar to the wonderful lemon posset recipe.

Ingredients
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 large square of cheesecloth, 4 layers thick

Procedure
In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat cream to boiling. Watch the heat, don’t let the cream boil over. If you've got an instant-read thermometer, you are shooting for a boiling temperature of 190 degrees. Continue boiling for 5 minutes, stirring the bubbles down when necessary. Stir in the lemon juice and cook, stirring, for about 5 more minutes, or until the cream thickens and resembles a loose bechamel sauce. Remove saucepan from heat and let cool, about 15 minutes. The cream will thicken more.

Fit a medium-sized mesh sieve over a medium bowl. Place a large cheesecloth square over sieve. Pour thickened cream over cheesecloth-lined sieve. Fold the ends of the cheesecloth over. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate in the sieve for at least 12 hours, or overnight. I prefer a firmer mascarpone, so I like to lay a small dish or two (like a demitasse saucer) over the top to weight it down slightly. Turn mascarpone out into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Mascarpone usually keeps for about 5 to 7 days.

Fresh Fig Tart

The Altitude Adjustment Section
My favorite high altitude cookbook — which, as you all know, is Susan Purdy’s Pie in the Sky (see link over there on the left under "Stacy's Cookbook Corner"), — has a recipe in it for Fresh Fig tart that has the beginning of November written all over it. While in NYC last week, I bought some of the most perfect figs I have ever tasted, and what did I do with them? I dipped them in dark chocolate and ate them. It was divine. But here is another option with a fantastic no-roll pastry everybody will love!

Ingredients for crust
2 1/4 cups A.P. flour
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup canola oil
3 to 4 tablespoons milk as needed

Ingredients for filling
2 cups Mascarpone
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 pounds fresh ripe figs

Ingredients for glaze
2 tablespoons honey
2/3 cup currant jelly
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Procedure
In medium bowl toss together flour, sugar, and salt. Add the oil and milk, and stir with a fork or your fingertips till it clumps together. If too dry, sprinkle in a bit more milk. Now just pick this mess up and press into the bottom of your 11 inch tart pan, which you have lightly sprayed with non-stick pan coating or lightly buttered. If it sticks to your finger,s cover it with plastic wrap and work it through the wrap, then remove. Now cut a 12-inch square of foil and spread with a little butter. Set greased side down on the pastry, fill shell with pie weights, and bake for 15-17 minutes in a preheated 425 oven. Then carefully remove the pie weights and lower oven to 350 and bake 12-14 minutes more. Let shell cool before filling.

To make filling, beat together everything but the figs and spread in the tart shell. Cut figs crosswise and lay flat on the filling. Now make a glaze! To make the glaze, just combine these 3 lovely ingredients in a small sauce pan till liquid and carefully spread over the figs. Refrigerate till ready to serve. Top with fresh thyme leaves. Oh La La!